Readers' Tips Summarized

Lose The Eraser With Turn Watcher

Turn Watcher(tm) is an easy to use Initiative and Effect
Tracker for table-top RPG dungeon masters. It tracks spells
and other effects, alerting you when those effects expire,
automates temporary hit points and hit point boosts, tracks
PCs, NPCs and monsters easily during combat rounds, and
handles delayed and readied actions in a snap. Use it to
perform secret Spot and Listen checks and even Will saves on
your players without them being the wiser. Download your
copy today!

A Brief Word From Johnn

One Sentence NPCs Contest Begins - Enter Today

Blogger Chatty DM and I have teamed up for a new contest
that should be fun for GMs of all game systems: one sentence
NPCs.

++ Contest Entry ++

E-mail me [johnn@roleplayingtips.com] one sentence NPCs that
generally use the tips outlined in this issue: three traits,
one conflict or contradiction, interesting. Any and all one
sentence NPCs are eligible however, so don't let writer's
block or my formula stop you from entering.

Winners will be drawn at random, so don't worry about
writing skills. One NPC = one entry and one chance to win.

Entries will be edited and then given back to everyone in
the e-zine. What GM couldn't use a list of one sentence NPCs
for instant game and planning use?

Not All Keep on the Shadowfells Smudge

Good news from Roleplaying Tips reader Brian S. in response
to my recent review of the first D&D 4E adventure product:

Regarding Keep on the Shadowfell, not all of the copies
smudge easily. I read a review of it stating the same, so
when I got mine I intentionally spent the entire evening
with it trying to smudge the ink, and I could not mess up
even a single letter. I think perhaps they just had a bad
print run with it, and hopefully it will be the exception
rather than the rule.

Easy GMing With One Sentence NPCs + New Contest

By Johnn Four

Chatty DM recently wrote on his blog about 10 word adventure
synopses, which is a great idea. It forces you to pare plots
down to their essence. This makes writing them faster, with
practice, and makes GMing easier because you have a clear
concept on paper.

Let's leverage that idea to create another awesome GM tool:
one sentence NPCs. This concept was danced around as fly-by
NPCs in my book NPC Essentials, but Chatty's structured
format turns it into a solid technique.

Below are a few tips on how to craft interesting, usable
NPCs in just one sentence. Once you've finished digesting
the tips, be sure to try them out and enter your NPCs into
the contest.

1. Create Three Traits

It's important you give your one sentence NPCs three traits
or characteristics. NPCs done well are the life of the game.
They not only drive plots, but they fuel roleplaying and add
depth to the game world.

You can create one or two trait NPCs, but during play I find
those come off as cardboard, clownish, or cliche. It seems
the third characteristic creates that extra dimension needed
to make NPCs alive. It provides you that extra spark to GM
and roleplay them well, and to mine them for story roles and
encounter ideas.

A great technique is to pick one trait from three different
categories (categories will be outlined next issue). Each
category reveals a new aspect of the NPC, and this turns out
to be the key if you desire three dimensional non-player
characters in your games.

For example, if I only chose the Appearance category, and
gave the NPC three appearance traits, there wouldn't be much
depth or material to work with when GMing that character. To
make him interesting, you'd need to resort to extremes,
giving him an odd or distinguished appearance. That might
get you by with a few NPCs, but if your whole campaign was
filled with NPCs who looked remarkable, with no other
traits, it would seem strange and become dull.

That brings us to another aspect of this tip. There are more
than three possible trait categories. I've seen NPC formulas
in the past, including in this e-zine, but cookie-cutter
NPCs without variation will cause campaign and world
development issues. The predictability and repetition will
ruin sense of disbelief, mood, and atmosphere.

Fortunately, there are more than three categories to choose
from, and by picking one trait from three different lists
each time, your NPCs are sure to be varied, interesting, and
unpredictable. Perfect!

2. Create A Contradiction

A key element to the one sentence NPC technique is to create
one conflict or contradiction between the character's three
traits. This will generate friction in the NPC's makeup, and
is where his humanity (for lack of a better word in games
where NPCs can be of any race), depth, and mileage will come
from. This is a critical aspect of making NPCs, especially
the one sentence variety.

For example, Elmo has three traits:

Occupation: farmer

Appearance: big and strong

Stat: low intelligence

At first, players will have fun poking at the big, dumb,
rural man. Soon, though, the roleplaying will dwindle and
the group will look for a more interesting NPC to game with.
Elmo might be good for a comic relief role, which is fine,
but he's become a one dimensional cliche. Worse, plots or
encounters you might try to drive with this NPC will feel
forced or lack depth.

What if we add conflict and change Elmo's farmer occupation
to secret agent? Elmo is only posing as a farmer so the
villain's minions won't pay him any attention. We now have
an interesting NPC with a bit of depth. As you roleplay him,
his mission will drive his objectives and decisions. You can
mine this for many gaming opportunities and cool encounter
moments.

He's much more fun to GM too, as I find gaming a secret
that's close to the PCs adds a lot to each session. You've
also got a great surprise in store for your players when
Elmo's true identity gets revealed.

We're not done with Elmo yet, though. The real conflict
amongst his traits comes from his poor intelligence. You can
play this in many ways, as intelligence has many
definitions. However, this shortcoming is at direct odds
with being a successful secret agent. What fun! This twist
gives you lots of GMing material.

If Elmo becomes an ally, perhaps the PCs need to rescue
him a few times.

Elmo might have enough guile to maintain his cover, but as
you roleplay him he makes several unsavvy and odd actions
and decisions that perplex the PCs, giving them a mystery to
solve while the major story arc progresses.

Once the PCs know Elmo's secret, they might join forces,
and he keeps getting them into predicaments, or forces the
PCs to roleplay and get him out of trouble with his
superiors on occasion.

Note: I advise not going for more than one strong
contradiction. Feel free to experiment, but you don't want
to create a tossed salad NPC with so much conflict and
weirdness that he becomes unbelievable or brittle (though
Dennis Hopper fans might disagree).

Here's a one sentence description of Elmo:

Big and strong secret agent, posing as a farmer, who often
gets into trouble because of his low intelligence.

3. Make One-Sentence NPCs Interesting But Generic Until Used

It might seem like a contradiction, but leave your one-
sentence non-player characters as generic as possible until
you bring them into play at the game table or in a design
session.

Do this to keep your options open until you're ready to
introduce the NPC. You want to minimize in-game, last minute
changes or retrofitting, to make GMing easier. It also means
you need to make fewer notes to track changes.

While GMing, it's often simpler to bring in a generic
element and customize it for your current need, than to
bring in a fleshed out element and trim away on-the-fly to
make things fit.

In practical terms, when creating a roster of one-sentence
NPCs for later use, you can leave the following bits of
information blank until the last minute:

4. Use Traits That Affect Encounters

This tip was hard won by experience. :) After more times
than I care to count of creating NPC details that had no
effect on gameplay - ever - I finally learned that the
details that matter most are ones that come into play during
encounters.

I would spend an hour on an NPC's history, for example, but
during games that information would have no impact, or
worse, become obsolete or contradictory due to shifting
details.

Writing fiction for an hour is not a waste of time. In
previous e-zine tips I've described how creative writing
helps GMing. For pure NPC value though, stick to details and
manage your time so you only create what will impact your
game directly. Use NPC traits that affect encounters.

For example, our spy Elmo might have a fear of spiders.
Fears have a spectrum of severity, so let's say Elmo's fear
is debilitating when in the presence of large spiders.

Unless you plan for large spiders and Elmo to be in the same
encounter, your creative effort has been largely wasted.
Maybe a kinder term for it is deferred. :) If spiders and
Elmo have something going on, be sure to jam them together
in an encounter - hopefully, more than one encounter.

It's important to reveal each of the three characteristics
you've defined for your one sentence NPCs, so that all their
dimensions and conflict come into play.

Another trap is creating a trait that does come into play,
but is too minor to have any impact. For example, let's say
Elmo dislikes cloudy days. Except in extreme circumstances,
this fact will not affect the game at all when it comes up.
Roleplaying, action, plot, clues, and other storytelling
categories all seem unaffected with this trait. Best to
replace it with something that does impact gameplay when it
manifests.

* * *

Part 2: One Sentence NPCs coming soon

Part 2 of One Sentence NPCs delves into the categories of
potential traits you can assign your non-player characters.
Such things as power base, secrets, jealousies and fears,
relationships, and more. Stay tuned.

Also, if you have any tips for crafting one sentence NPCs,
I'll try to fit them into part 2 as well. Just hit reply to
send in your NPC tips and advice.

What's Your Favorite RPG? Microlite20

Thanks to Josh D for getting permission to reprint from
Microlite20 Skill System. I've paraphrased a portion of
the info. Visit the link for the full scoop.

For all it's lack of size, Microlite20 does an admirable job
of allowing GMs to run pretty much any published 3.5 D&D
adventure on the fly without having to resort to hefty
conversion tables and the like. It uses the d20 mechanic and
terms that mirror those of D&D. Hit points, attack rolls and
damage are the same, whichever game you're playing.

One of the key differences between the d20 skill system and
Microlite20 is that the attribute modifier can change.
That's an important distinction. It makes the Microlite20
system powerful and flexible. It means that just four skills
can cover the entire D&D skill set, and more.

Microlite20's four skills - Physical, Subterfuge, Knowledge
and Communication - can be used to adjudicate pretty much
any situation the game demands. Skills are also used to
replace two of the three saving throws from D&D

Fewer skills means more choice. Back in the days of classic
D&D, the players could do anything. With no straight-jacket
skill system to limit their choices, the players invented
cool and clever solutions to problems. When faced with a 30'
high statue with rubies for eyes, they erected pulleys to
lift and swing the rogue into place far above their heads.
Try doing that in 3rd Edition D&D and the GM will be left
scratching their head working out how to call for skill
checks for that. The D&D skill system has become a list of
what the characters can do, silently eliminating all other
possibilities, and that's not a good thing.

Microlite20 is the best of both worlds; rather than provide
a skills list, it provides a skills framework. This gives
the players room to think of solutions rather than looking
down a long list of skills to see what's most applicable to
the task at hand.

But, what happens when you're running a published adventure,
or using a monster from the Monster Manual or SRD? Answer:
use them as is. It doesn't matter that the orc makes a
Listen check to see if it detects the PCs, or if the NPC
fails a Spot check. The mechanics are the same, and the
emphasis should always be on simplicity and speed of play.
There's no need to convert any monsters or NPCs to
Microlite20 before you use them. Just roll, and have fun.

Readers' Tips Of The Week:

1. Roleplaying Tips Issue Reference

Created by jl hatlen linnell

Check out this cool Excel Roleplaying Tips e-zine catalog,
created by Tips reader jl hatlen linnell, that covers all
issues and supplementals. The spreadsheet supplies Issue and
Reader Tip titles, authors, and year of publication. This is
a good research tool. For example, did you know there have
been 1370 e-zine contributors to date?

2. Using The 5 Room Dungeon To Get The PCs A Job

From: Lennart Steinke

Hi! Just wanted to tell you how great the 5 Room Dungeon
idea is. I am currently playing with a group of players who
haven't played D&D before, and several have mentioned they
don't want just hack'n slay. So, I wanted something less
typical and decided to use "Ye Classic Wizard's House" from
the 5 Room Dungeon collection. Now, all I needed was a nice
way to give the PCs their new job.

I decided to use the 5 Room Dungeon concept again. The
"dungeon" was the house of a noble man, and the reward was
getting a job to find the mcguffin in the wizard's house:

Setup
The party knows that a local noble man is looking for a
group of adventures for a simple find and retrieve job.

Room 1: The Guardian
The noble lives in a big house. A long road leads from the
front gate to the mansion. Once the PCs enter the area, they
hear an angry growl and are soon surrounded by guard dogs.
How do the PCs get past these without slaughtering the
animals? Or, at least, dealing with the dogs in a way the
players can't be blamed for by the noble.

Room 2: Roleplaying Challenge
Once the PCs arrive at the door and knock they must deal
with the elitist butler. If they enter without knocking, the
butler will not be pleased. Now is the time for the players
with the social skills to shine. They might be able to get
some extra information, and a good standing with the butler
will impress the noble.

Room 3: Setback
The noble is already talking with a group of adventurers at
the moment - but the butler will lead them to the library
(where the noble currently is) anyway. The noble reveals he
just gave the job to the other group of adventurers already
- the one that just left. The players should now notice they
didn't meet another group. If nothing happens, the butler
will point the fact out after some time. The search for the
other group leads to Room 4.

Room 4: Conflict
The party finds the other group browsing through the
nobleman's possessions. Apprehending or defeating the other
group will lead to Room 5.

Room 5: Reward
The party will now have proven their worth. The noble will
gladly tell them what the actual job is and give them all
needed information.

This went like a charm during the session, and it was much
more interesting than a normal plot hook. Thanks for the
great DM tool you have come up with; the 5RD really is a
great way to build small adventures.

3. Use Paper Grocery Bags For Cool Map Paper

When I don't have any fancy paper handy, I have found
cutting or tearing a blank piece out of a paper grocery bag
can provide nice, crude, brown paper for rough maps found by
characters in a dungeon.

Also, when doing a handout map that is supposed to be the
one found by characters, it can be nice to distress it with
tears, burn marks (possibly obliterating some portion I
don't want them to see), fake blood stains, etc. Burn marks
can have a bit of a downside if you are keeping the map
around past one session. The crispy edges will break off
over time, and you can get sooty stains on other papers.

I just tore it for the tears, though I suppose a few drops
of salt water to stain the paper would work if you thought I
meant the lachrymose sort of tears. My fake blood was a
reddish brown paint for a dried bloodstain look, but for
fresher blood, Google "fake blood recipe" for a bunch of
alternatives.